Day by Day
by Afterthought of 12
Summary: Walk with me and together we will chase the setting sun into the future... A catalogue of drabbles Jasper x Alice
1. Bittersweet

* * *

_Food if an important part of a balanced diet_

_FRAN LEBOWITZ_

* * *

The stench was beyond revolting. It was a near putrescent odor that seemed to permeate every nook and crevice with a befouled aroma of something akin to wet sewage and livid flesh. A gentle nightly breeze pricked against the surface of his exposed neck, wafting the scent of the recently slain up into his hyper sensitive nostrils causing his sharp and angular features to upturn into a mild scowl as he breathed in the toxic stench.

"And you are sure that this is edible," Jasper's voice was like jagged ice; cold, sharp, and to the point as his blackened eyes roamed her smaller form as she partook of the supposed meal.

"Most definitely," Alice consoled a bit hesitantly, raising a forearm to her lips, all the while keeping her now returning gold eyes trained on his.

"I'm having…second thoughts about this," the reply was, apprehensive; tense.

"Just try it," she offered, her emotions belying the strength of her voice, timid, uneasy. She nudged softly at the offering in her hands, easing the meal over to him.

He looked at the flesh, then back at her, reading her eyes and easing himself into her emotions, albeit a bit reluctantly before kneeling down next to her.

"Alright…"

He dipped his head, sinking his teeth into the sanguine trail and drank of the proposed alternative for the first time.

And it was, simply put, awful. The viscous liquid that seeped into his mouth was thick as wet mud slithering down his throat and as foul tasting as anything he had ever experienced in all his years of existence, human included.

His head snapped back and his eyes squinted into an obvious grimace as he turned his head to the side and spewed the foul taste from his mouth.

"That bad," Alice asked softly, watching with no small amount of remorse as he continued to spat to the side.

"Very," he paused as he spit once more, "very…bitter," he replied before turning to face her disappointed emotions "forgive my manners ma'am its just that…"

She waved him off, "its okay," she spoke softly, unsure of herself but determined none the less as she cupped her hands under the exposed flesh of the woodland critter. The blood slowly began to pool into her small cupped hands as he watched in a curious state as she moved them and knelt before him, resting herself on her heels and held her hands up to him.

"Will you," she stopped, her voice quiet and unsure, so radically different from the upbeat and confident persona he had met just hours ago. She took a deep breath as he felt her steady her emotions. _Confidence, _he mused internally as she began to speak once more.

"Will you try it again?"

"I...I don't know about this Alice," in spite of her proposal he was unsure of himself if he could stomach another go, let alone allow himself to drink from her own hands. It was simply improper.

"For me," she asked once more, her mannerisms the epitome of coy as she placed her hands a bit closer to him yet still at a respectable distance.

He gave her a defeated look he had known this battle lost long ago, her unease winning over his rationality.

"For you," he replied softly, "yes."

She placed her hands closer to him, a smothering amount of unadulterated joy washing over him and bringing about the smallest hint of a grin to his lips in spite of what he was about to commit.

He placed his lips softly into the pool of crimson liquid and with a final resigned mental note drank from her outstretched hands.

Yet the bitter taste wasn't so bitter. The thickness of it not quite so revolting, but rather a comforting texture had come into a play. A sweetness to his lips. He raised his hands to meet hers, enveloping her smaller ones with his as he drank with a subdued fervor, savoring each drop as it quenched the searing heat in his throat and soothed the cravings of his soul. Instinct took over as he dipped his head lower into her palms, drinking at the last futile remains before his lip inevitably came into contact with the cool flesh of her hand. Lost in the moment he relished in his primal urges as he slowly began to kiss her bloodied hands. Soft, gentle kisses of the lip as he moved his way up from the fleshy portion of her palm up to the very tip of her fingers, cherishing every exquisite millimeter of her hand before…

"J-J-Japser," her voice hitched in her throat as recognition flared across his face. He immediately stopped his ministrations, easing her hand away from his lips as his eyes turned to the ground.

"Forgive me I was," he stopped midsentence as she raised a finger to his lips, silencing his embarassed rambling as she gently began to trace her wayward finger across the breadth of his lips taking with her the last remnants of the crimson left there before returning her hand to her person.

"How," she paused as she took an unnecessary breath to satiate her compounding desires as she lifted the flagrant hand to her face and inhaled the delicious scent, "how was it this time."

"Bitter," his remarks caught her off guard. She looked at her unabashed hand with a lustuful interest before lifting it to her mouth and devouring the carnal offering to abate her emotions and test his theory before she heard the sweet sound of his throaty reply, and a demure smirk traced its way across her angelic features.

"Deliciously bittersweet…"

* * *

**BITTERSWEET**

_both bitter and sweet to the taste_

* * *


	2. Adamant

* * *

"_I am... stubborn, and I admit it, so it's OK."_

_MILA KUNIS_

* * *

"If you don't mind me asking ma'am…"

"Just Alice is fine," she piped up with a rather large smile.

He hesitated a moment, bathing in the ray of positive emotions that was standing next to him before allowing himself a ghost of smirk.

"Forgive me, Miss Alice—."

"Alice, just Alice will do Jasper," she corrected once more, eyeing him to if she got the point across.

"Once more I apologize it's just my upbringing demands me to show the proper respects," he spoke with a slight reverence.

"Alls well that ends well I suppose."

"Yes ma'am th—."

"Alice," she quickly quipped her features upturning into a playful scowl; "calling me ma'am makes me sound old."

"Forgive me I—."

"And you don't have to apologize all the time really, its all right we're, or at least you are, still getting use to one another," she pouted.

"Yes Miss."

"Ah ah ah," she raised finger sporting a corrective glint in her topaz eyes as she looked at him.

Jasper met her gaze evenly, midnight onto the sun, as he read her playful attitude with a blank stare. He felt her begin to shrink under his gaze, her emotions reigning themselves in as a timid façade began to mask her growing uneasiness with the situation. Alice quickly shied away from both the situation and Jasper for that matter, at the moment, turning herself away with a blank expression.

Her hand dropped to her side as she began to walk away slowly…

He followed in turn and his hand slid slowly into hers…

And she grinned lightly…

And he spoke…

"Let's go…" he spoke softly and the next word, turning a small smirk into demure smile as she turned a coy eye to meet his.

"Alice…"

* * *

**ADAM****ANT**__

_utterly unyielding in attitude or opinion in spite of all appeals, urgings_

* * *


	3. Jealousy

* * *

_He that is not jealous is not in love_

_ST. AUGUSTINE_

* * *

Alice managed to keep her scowl to a minimum, clenching and unclenching her jaw as she trained her gaze on the sight across the room.

She had just praised him not too long ago on how well he was doing with his human interaction skills, yet it seemed he took the lesson a bit too seriously for her liking.

A low guttural growl escaped her throat as that _Jezebel_ leaned ever closer into Jasper, her body releasing a not so subtle amount of pheromones that had Alice mentally gagging for relief as she snapped her head around in a futile attempt to return her attention back to her 'school work'.

Of all the days to have a substitute teacher it had to be today.

Her topaz eyes darted to the clock…

_11:55, 5 more minutes, _she inwardly snarled as she grit her teeth as her eyes once again found themselves staring across the room.

The harlot couldn't have worn a smaller tighter fitting shirt today could she? All of a sudden Alice became very self conscious, a very angry self conscious that is, as she willed her emotions across the room to make herself, her discontent known to him…

Again…

Jasper's head perked up from across the room and immediately found his eyes locked with that of his love's as she sent him a particularly withering glare.

The bell chimed, 12 noon on the dot, as she shot up and darted across the room, faster then should have been possible had anyone been noticing before she interlocked her arms with his before he could even stand.

"Let's go to lunch _baby_," she emphasized the ending a bit too much not to be subtle, as she eyed her human foe with a more then bitter glare. The girl sent her a particularly aloof sigh as she leaned back into the desk basking in the moment.

"Have fun," her voice was sultry, overly so as she lightly tapped Jasper's arm. Alice fought the urge to scowl opting to send the fleshling a condescending smirk before tugging on her _husband's_ arm.

They left in a rapid pace, Jasper following her lead as she drug him down the crowding corridor before veering left for the parking lot.

"Umm…Lunch," he queried uneasily reading her surging emotions and not knowing which was stronger the: disgust or the possessiveness.

"Not today," she snapped as she turned to face him at the doorway giving him a once over and a hearty sniff before backing away in revulsion. Her gold eyes snapped up to his before answering his unasked question.

"You smell like _her,_" she quipped pressing the door open before grasping his hand and leading them both to the car, "and I won't have _my _husband smelling of another woman, especially a _human _woman," this time she did snarl.

Jasper could only offer a small smile before he could reply.

"As you wish"

* * *

**JEALOUSY**

_mental uneasiness from suspicion or fear of rivalry_

* * *


	4. Family

* * *

_No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence_

_T.S. Eliot_

* * *

These hills had voices…

Ancient and raspy woodland chimes that carried with them the voice of the dead, the fallen, the forgotten. He'd first found them. Scavenging through the now abandoned and desolate foothills of his homeland, searching for answers he knew he may never find. Answers as to whom, as to when, where, how, why…

He needed to know; to see with his own eyes and touch now with his hands the world he'd been forced to leave behind, never to return.

Yet the voices stopped as soon as he reached the summit, the vivd premonitions drawing closed as he eyed now the weathered stone tablets with noting more then illegible indentations to label them as to who they were anymore.

But he knew; could feel it down to the very core of his being as he stared at the dried up plot of land that marked history, his history. The place that Jasper Whitlock ceased to be _the _Jasper Whitlock God had created. Where the last of the _true _Whitlock bloodline was laid to rest. Buried and forgotten under the aging soil of the Earth.

He was silent then. Neither breathing, moving, nor truly seeing at that moment; lost in a glorious daze of memories that he'd hope never end.

Oblivous to her turmoil.

She gazed at the ground, her eyes devoid of emotion yet her body radiating her pity, condolence, confusion, love, support, too many emotions to identify but all of it directed toward him.

Her voice was a soft echo; true and free of taint…

"What is…_family_?"

He didn't know how to truly answer. Didn't know if he could honestly sum the entirety of what it was she was looking for, so he spoke in a solemn voice the only words that came to mind.

"The World," his voice was hollow, devoid of the emotion he was so powerfully emanating.

"Then," Alice spoke softly as her hand found his as the sun began to dive behind the distant ridgeline, casting deep shadows and illuminating hidden features of both earth and skin as the blood red light caught his face dredging up the sin of his past in all its jagged and misshapen beauty.

She was neither scared nor disgusted as his dark yellow eyes found their way to hers.

"Will you be…my family," she spoke softly, pleadingly as she gazed into his eyes, penetrating the surface of emotions and delving into the very core of his soul as she spoke, looking searching franticly for him, for Jasper.

He gazed at her a moment, eyes searching her with the same intensity she sought in him before he moved slowly. Gently before wrapping his arms around her and enfolding her into his embrace as she reciprocated the action both vying for the impossible, to become what they had become emotionally, to become one.

"I will be your family…You will be my world."

* * *

**FAMILY**

_people who are generally not blood relations but who share common attitudes, interests, or goals and, frequently, live together_

* * *

_a/n: Pre-Cullen intervention (pre Twilight) _


	5. Sin

* * *

_The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one_

_ELBERT HUBBARD_

* * *

Even he knew when to distance himself from the company of others. Whether it be _family_ or friends or even a loved one, he knew.

Sometimes hiding in the darkness was all he could do. Sitting under the shade of a giant tree, hidden from the dim light of the moon as it reflected off the waters edge in a sheen of heavenly luminescence. Even at night he could not hide from the weight of his sins, both past, present and, undeniably, the future.

He could still feel the wetness, the liquid sin that traced its way down from the corner of his mouth and down his neck as he watched the waters edge lap against the shore.

Jasper had felt her emotions, long before he could smell her, see her, hear or taste her scent in the air as she approached.

"Sin," he spoke causing Alice to halt in her tracks. "Sin is all that I am."

"It was an error, a mistake; everyone will come around in time. "

A forlorn smile crossed his face as she came into the view and she regarded him.

"What you did in the past is the past. Who we are now and what we do today is what determines what we will become in the future."

Their eyes met gold onto scarlet, the sun onto sin before she hopped up next to him and took her rightful place at his side, fitting her body ever so snuggly into his as his arm instinctively found its way around her and brought her even closer.

"Will you forgive me," his voice was stern but oh so distraught as he watched the rippling reflection of the moon on the lake.

"I already have," she spoke softly as she wrapped her arms around his mid and hugged him tightly.

"No matter how far you fall, I'll always be there to help you," her voice was a relief not born of this world as the tension and unease, the filth of his misdeed seemed to fall away…forgotten.

"What if I fall beyond your reach," his voice was direct, and serious now as she felt him turn in her grasp and knew he was looking directly at her now.

"Then you and I shall fall together," she sighed, hugging him tighter.

"Then I shall never fall again," he replied quickly as they unanimously tightened their grips around each other, "never again."

* * *

**SIN**

_any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse_

* * *

_a/n: Pre-Twilight, post Cullen intervention_


	6. Scar

* * *

_Every winner has scars_

_ROBERT N.C. NIX_

* * *

They say the past catches up with you faster the harder you try to run from it.

Sometimes he wished he could run from it, the past that is. Run and hope on high that some day, some how the past wouldn't always be there to haunt him.

No…Jasper Whitlock, or Hale whichever anyone preferred to call him by, knew what it meant to have skeletons in the closet. His past transgressions stamped across every inch of his body in a gruesome display for all the world to see the disgusting principles of another.

A glance in a mirror, a sunny day, a reflection in the water, a sight under the fluorescent light

Memoirs of his past; jagged and unruly striations of broken and ripped flesh that spoke the words he never could and reveal the memories of a life that he would never let be known.

It was when he'd found the sun that he felt most…right; normal.

He'd often watch the sunrise from the roof, when there was one at least, catching the rays of white light as they washed over his skin and eliciting a tingling feeling all across the length of his body.

"Why do you stand in the sun every morning," Alice had asked once as she watched in quiet yearning, although her lust filled thoughts and emotions often found their way quite _loudly _and unashamed into his mind every time she watched him glow under the solar glare.

"Because," he'd reply simply as he held his eyes closed and arms spread wide to welcome the ray of light into his body, hoping the abruptness would shoot down her curiosity.

Of course it failed.

"Because why," she asked quizzically, a cute pout arching on her face as she tilted her head to the side.

"It feels like," he stopped hesitantly as he lowered his arms and looked at his hands. The mangled and disfigured flesh covering them drawing out a weary sigh from him as he turned his head to give her a sad smile.

"It almost feels like this wretched body of mine is healing itself," he replied with a tired smirk before giving a soft chuckle.

"Silly isn't it?"

"Not at all," she spoke with a soft knowing, standing up from her prone position as she entered the glowing ray of the sun with him, her perfect skin glistening under the light revealing the untouched and unblemished purity that was Alice Whitlock Hale Cullen.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," she said with a rather large smile as she grasped his scarred hands in hers lifting them to her lips and kissing them softly, "and I think you are absolutely 100% gorgeous, you man hunk you," she reached a hand up and traced the tiny scars that nicked the side of his lip, "perfection," as she reached a hand behind his head and brought his lips to her own.

* * *

**SCAR**

_a lingering sign of damage or injury, either mental or physical_

* * *


	7. Lamentation

* * *

_My grief lies all within, and these external manners of lament are merely shadows to the unseen grief that swells with silence in the tortured soul_

_WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE_

* * *

The future…

Truth be told, time and time again, Alice would find herself lamenting over the hand fate had dealt her—to have memories of the future yet not even the slightest inclination as to who she was in the past was a twisted irony she found a little less then amusing. The past, her past, a shrouded mystery to her yet the future, the sights and sounds of what was unknown to all, was her proverbial mental play ground.

As was the case, in the beginning that is, the Cullen tribe would gush and envy her gift of clairvoyance.

They didn't know how hard their praise bit into her psyche.

To have a past, no matter how good or how harsh it was, there was an identity there present in the past. It was all there, a history, a family, a tradition, a distinctiveness in which people built themselves and their lives around. How they lived, how they acted, what they were, what they wanted to be.

Tastes…

Interest…

Preferences…

"Lamenting," Jasper asked softly as he situated himself up behind her huddled form as she continued to gaze off into the distance.

"Yes," she replied quietly as she eased back into him, beckoning him to embrace her.

"What of," he queried as he nuzzled the nape of her neck before nestling his head next to hers.

"The loss of something I never knew," her words were cryptic, her tone even as she continued her vigilance into nothing.

"You lost it before you could ever cherish it," he tried to console knowing full well what it was she was speaking, feeling the rising indignation of her emotions as he spoke and the tensing of her body in his grip but remaining silent, a non verbal goading to him to continue his thought.

"Let the day we met become that which was taken from you," his voice was in harmony with the emotions that he now projected to her; peace, serenity, comfort and understanding. "Today and forever on let it be who we are. Let it define us and what we will be, what we will become," his hand slid down her arm easing its way onto hers before drawing it up to meet with his other arm previously situated around her waist.

She looked at his hands; one now firmly placed on the top of her own raising it to the other before he opened it and revealed something she that had blanked her mind of her previous melancholy.

"Will you allow me to be your past," he asked softly raising her hand and spreading her fingers wider, "will you allow me to be your present."

It was a simple band. One of gold with a small diamond seated at the top that he held just a touch away from her now trembling finger.

"Will you allow me to join you there," he asked, snapping her from her daze as she turned her head around as fast as she could seeking his emotions with her eyes, desperately searching for the sincerity as if she couldn't believe what it was that he was implying. Alice watched as he nodded towards her own head again before speaking again, "will you allow me to be there with you…in the future," he asked once more as he rested his forehead against her own.

Her passion flooded him; drowning him in her unspoken desire and yearning...

She answered his question with a kiss that grew in its passion with every joyous inch that the ring slid down her finger.

* * *

**LAMENTATION**

_to mourn for or over_

* * *


	8. Question

* * *

_The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof._

_RICHARD BACH_

* * *

"You don't talk much do you," Emmet asked him warily.

"Was never really the social type," Jasper returned evenly.

There were a few moments of uncomfortable silence before…

"Mind if I ask a question," Emmet asked.

"You already have," Jasper replied once more.

"Well do you mind if I ask another," Emmet requested, a bit perturbed.

"You already did," Jasper spoke calmly.

"WELL, do you mind if I ask another question after this," Emmet growled. Jasper turned to regard his rather large 'companion' at the moment before returning his sights to the nothing he was watching.

"I suppose, what do you wish to know."

A few moments of silence again before a rather hesitant inquiry.

"What's it like?"

"I have no clue what you're talking about and with that no more questions for today," Jasper replied smugly before speeding off into the distance.

Emmet held his ground for a few moments, mouth agape and a look of befuddlement marring his features before he adopted a rather large grin and a loud thundering laughter could be heard echoing throughout the land.

* * *

**QUESTION**

_order to get information in reply_

* * *

_a/n: JAMMET? :D silly off topic drabble that hit me in the early morning :P_


	9. Eternity

* * *

_Love is not written on paper, for paper can be erased. Nor is it etched on stone, for stone can be broken. But it is inscribed on a heart and there it shall remain forever_

_ANONYMOUS _

* * *

The sun was setting; a brilliant sheen of orange majesty coloring the world around them in contrasting tones of dark and subtle ginger as the onset of twilight loomed just moments away.

Yet they spoke in great confidence seemingly oblivious to the darkening world around them. Two figures of conflicting stature stood beneath the reach of the buried sun, lost not in the corporeal world but in something more…

"How far can you see," Jasper asked his darkening topaz eyes gazed out onto the waters edge.

"As far as the distant horizon," Alice replied as her eyes drifted skyward, drinking in the sight of the inlay of nervous stars against the backdrop of a darkening sky.

"And if you close your eyes," he spoke with a hint of apprehension.

"Until the end of days," she returned, eyes closing lightly as she spoke.

"Then…you've seen the end of days?"

"I'm not sure," her reply was…fearful.

"You're not sure?" he countered, a hint of shock flavoring his tone.

"Is…," she hesitated, "is there an end to eternity?" she queried as her head tilted to the side, eyes remaining shut but a solemn look; desperate and uneasy etched across her face.

"Who am I to be asked," he asked incredulously.

"You are Jasper and I am asking; is there an end to eternity," she spoke more sternly; forcefully as she probed him for the answer.

He took a moment…contemplating the enormity of what it was that she had asked of him. Was there an eternity in this abominable existence?

The full moon had peaked out from behind the shadow of the sun, drawing its strength from the remnants of power projected onto it from its daytime compatriot and casting down with it a heavenly glow of light that found itself projecting directly onto her quaint form.

And Jasper knew now that the stars of the heavens had fallen, finding themselves etched in her shimmering skin as an ethereal glow of beyond comprehensible proportions cascaded over every magnificent inch of her body.

He'd found his voice…

"As long as you're standing here next to me, there is no end—eyes closed or open. Time may move on but we are forever," he spoke as he gently pulled her idle hand into his own, responding to the resounding pressure she applied and affirming their connection.

And a glorious smile found its way onto her face as her eyes opened and the light of the moon reflected onto the shadow of the Earth.

"Then there is no end to eternity."

* * *

**ETERNITY**

_infinite time without end_

* * *


	10. Nightmare

* * *

_The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living_

_Marcus Tullius Cicero_

* * *

Jasper's thoughts would drift, his eyes glaze over as his practiced breathing halted and his mind would follow in pursuit of his drifting conscious as they pursued the dangerous ends of daydreams. Fragmented images of past and present, stringing themselves together in faded and roughly analogous series of events that could roughly be surmised as life…

Un-life…

They were violent images born of the carnal red and blackest night widening onto the canvas of whitest sclera. Memories of gnashing jaws at porcelain flesh dredging up the forgotten aches and grievous pains that tingled even now through placid times.

A searing heat as jaw met flesh and injection met vein as venom flowed through vein and soul with each ignorant moment that passed him by.

He was lost. A strange man in a familiar land as the devils of the past sought him through the ethereal plain.

His hand were frantic tucking and turning, lifting and clawing, feeling and touching; ravaging his own body as they traced each irreverent stain of scarred blight that marked his body. Each touching trace he repeated eliciting a vivid display of mental images illustrating a terrifyingly personal history of violence.

He was purebred…darkness…

Lost…a condemning darkness clouding his mind; a repeating mantra of uttered obscenities befell him from his own subconscious.

Compounding angst filled thoughts and emotions waylaying him time and time again.

He was not worthy…

Evil…

Bad…

Unredeemable…

Undeserving…

Unlovable…

A demon—…

There was a strange pressure. Quick yet calm; forceful yet gentle; stern but reassuring as the strangest invasion of pleasant warmth began to envelop him and reign in on his wayward thoughts and sentiments. It harnessed his personal defamations to his person before utterly casting them aside and replacing them with positive and reassuring thoughts and emotions.

Good…

Just…

Redeemed…

Deserving…

Loved…

Perfection…

His mind fell catatonic, his eyes widened as the bright light became sight and the darkness of his memories faded only to be replaced with a subtle silence and the sensations of the corporeal world as it came into focus. Yet the resurgence of consciousness was benign to him as he focused on the whispering presence that clutched itself tightly around him in the only loving and possessive manner he would allow to anyone.

_Alice…_

"Stop it Jasper," she whispered into his chest, nuzzling him as her balled fist of cloth gently began to loosen with the tension that eased from his frame as his arms came up behind her.

"Just stop it," she urged again as her hands slid up his back easing themselves onto his shoulders before embracing him closer to her person; smothering herself in him

His arms wrapped around her, holding her tightly as he shut his eyes and buried his face into the crook of her neck as he spoke…

"Thank you…"

* * *

**NIGHTMARE**

_a terrifying dream (daydream in this case)_

* * *

_a/n: Sclera (sklair-uh) is the name for the white colored portion of the eye…_


End file.
